Whew! What a weekend...
Worked at the school clinic Friday, which went fine but for some reason I was very tired at the end of the day...but had to get up early to make it to the spa party gig at a client's home on Saturday. That went very well in spite of my general tiredness but after 4 hours of rubbin' in a row my ass was T-Y-R-D tired. Happily, I had some cub time that evening and the next morning to help recharge my batteries.
Then I worked at the Alive! Expo (a big health fair, essentially) at the World Congress Center downtown - helping the school with their chair massage station. I picked a spot in the front and worked another 4 hours going full tilt...the poor noobs looked like they were gonna drop dead, but I was like "fah, I've done this for 10 hours in 90+ degree heat and humidity (Pride) this is nuthin." The only thing that got me was the concrete floor...even with carpet on it, it still killed the legs and feet. Owie.
And now I know why they call it the World Congress Center - you could fit the whole world inside it, holy crap it's huge...and looooooong to walk through. Our booth must have been a dang mile from the MARTA stop. However there was lots of swag and samples given out by exhibitors and I did have a good time - met some cool folks and networked and handed out my cards.
One guy I worked on said he used to be a pro wrestler for 2 months...but there was so much drug use - they gave everyone drugs to keep them going on the road 300 days a year and through injuries, etc that he had to drop out...he was already on drugs for back injuries from football and martial arts. So its not *all* glamour and posturing, apparently. He said he's planning to open a wellness center in town and took my card, we'll see how that goes.
The executive director (and founder) of the school asked me to work on him which I realized I never had, so he got the deluxe treatment and was very vocal in his appreciation of it (hopefully he'll remember that when I ask him about teaching the Chair Massage class, cause some of these students could use some help! lol). As soon as he got up one of the outside therapists he'd called in to volunteer with us wanted one because "he picked you so I want one from you." Soon after one of my students came up to get one but the Asst. Director shooed him away since there was a line of clients waiting at the front table. Sorry, kid. Just watch and learn. ;)
Towards the end of my shift, I noticed an elderly black man in a celestial-themed daishiki wander by our area. Shortly thereafter I noticed him watching all of us working, but especially me. He got in the line to sign up for a massage but then stood around a long time I thought, others going ahead of him out of turn. It was the end of my shift and my dogs were killin' me so I was ret to go. As I walked up to turn in my supplies, the director on deck said "Mikey, you have a request!"
As it turns out Mr. Daishiki had been waiting for me to become available. Well of course I had to stay now, and I'm glad I did. He told me that he waited for me because of all the MT's working the booth (we had about a dozen on tap at any given moment) I was the most focused on what I was doing and on my client while others where staring off into the void with a "what's my motivation in this scene" look on their faces (paraphrasing). I'd noticed that too as I'd been critiquing and correcting the students here and there as I had time. He said "but you're not a student, you're an instructor." I assume he had asked the director about me. I told him "Thanks I'm glad to know you could tell the difference!" LOL! So we got to it and he was most pleased with his massage (I cheated a little and went over time - a good reason to flatter your therapist, for those massage consumers out there).
As I was just about to make my arduous trek back to the MARTA stop when one of my students offered me a ride to Lindbergh if I could wait 15 minutes, so I gladly accepted and wandered about the fair collecting samples and literature.
There was also a new agey expo thing going on in the same space as the health fair and the two always run together somewhat anyway as all the health-loonies come out of the woodwork - looking for the next great chakra-boosting organic vegan karma-cleansing protein shake and a crystal-power electro-aura massage (I did sample some awesome super-organic-un-processed mega-antioxidant dark chocolate...YUM!)...
I always think of the Rennfest and pagan gathers in such situations...you can always tell the diehards from the poseurs and the merely curious. The wannabes will have that one big costume piece on over their street clothes, where the diehards will be so into it they leave behind their outside world and are in full costume /garb complete with accents and affected body language - they'll be all doe-eyed when they talk about whatever totally most awesome life-changing thing EVAR! they've discovered and then get all misty-eyed and morose when the event is over.
One of my favorite things in life is spotting examples of advertising irony. In one booth on the "food row" there was a small table with a lone black man (somehow this mattered, as the booth was something like Black Vegetarians of Georgia?) with a sign that said "Did your food have a face?" with a picture of a pig's head on it. Well, I have sympathy for the poor piggies but I hate guilt-based advocacy so I just rolled my eyes and kept going - to the booth directly across from him: Grass-Fed Organic Beef! LOL! The folks there were cooking and serving up samples of their tasty formerly-faced foods. The vegetarian guy only had a few brochures and recipe cards to hand out.
Hint: next time you are on "food row"...bring some food! Some good soul food veggies and cornpone might have stood a chance against the meaty goodness across the aisle. And for some reason as we exited the event, Nature's Own was handing out entire loaves of bread. Yay, swag!
All in all a good day, I was fairly energized morale-wise even if my legs wuz sore. They're better now ;)
Then I worked at the Alive! Expo (a big health fair, essentially) at the World Congress Center downtown - helping the school with their chair massage station. I picked a spot in the front and worked another 4 hours going full tilt...the poor noobs looked like they were gonna drop dead, but I was like "fah, I've done this for 10 hours in 90+ degree heat and humidity (Pride) this is nuthin." The only thing that got me was the concrete floor...even with carpet on it, it still killed the legs and feet. Owie.
And now I know why they call it the World Congress Center - you could fit the whole world inside it, holy crap it's huge...and looooooong to walk through. Our booth must have been a dang mile from the MARTA stop. However there was lots of swag and samples given out by exhibitors and I did have a good time - met some cool folks and networked and handed out my cards.
One guy I worked on said he used to be a pro wrestler for 2 months...but there was so much drug use - they gave everyone drugs to keep them going on the road 300 days a year and through injuries, etc that he had to drop out...he was already on drugs for back injuries from football and martial arts. So its not *all* glamour and posturing, apparently. He said he's planning to open a wellness center in town and took my card, we'll see how that goes.
The executive director (and founder) of the school asked me to work on him which I realized I never had, so he got the deluxe treatment and was very vocal in his appreciation of it (hopefully he'll remember that when I ask him about teaching the Chair Massage class, cause some of these students could use some help! lol). As soon as he got up one of the outside therapists he'd called in to volunteer with us wanted one because "he picked you so I want one from you." Soon after one of my students came up to get one but the Asst. Director shooed him away since there was a line of clients waiting at the front table. Sorry, kid. Just watch and learn. ;)
Towards the end of my shift, I noticed an elderly black man in a celestial-themed daishiki wander by our area. Shortly thereafter I noticed him watching all of us working, but especially me. He got in the line to sign up for a massage but then stood around a long time I thought, others going ahead of him out of turn. It was the end of my shift and my dogs were killin' me so I was ret to go. As I walked up to turn in my supplies, the director on deck said "Mikey, you have a request!"
As it turns out Mr. Daishiki had been waiting for me to become available. Well of course I had to stay now, and I'm glad I did. He told me that he waited for me because of all the MT's working the booth (we had about a dozen on tap at any given moment) I was the most focused on what I was doing and on my client while others where staring off into the void with a "what's my motivation in this scene" look on their faces (paraphrasing). I'd noticed that too as I'd been critiquing and correcting the students here and there as I had time. He said "but you're not a student, you're an instructor." I assume he had asked the director about me. I told him "Thanks I'm glad to know you could tell the difference!" LOL! So we got to it and he was most pleased with his massage (I cheated a little and went over time - a good reason to flatter your therapist, for those massage consumers out there).
As I was just about to make my arduous trek back to the MARTA stop when one of my students offered me a ride to Lindbergh if I could wait 15 minutes, so I gladly accepted and wandered about the fair collecting samples and literature.
There was also a new agey expo thing going on in the same space as the health fair and the two always run together somewhat anyway as all the health-loonies come out of the woodwork - looking for the next great chakra-boosting organic vegan karma-cleansing protein shake and a crystal-power electro-aura massage (I did sample some awesome super-organic-un-processed mega-antioxidant dark chocolate...YUM!)...
I always think of the Rennfest and pagan gathers in such situations...you can always tell the diehards from the poseurs and the merely curious. The wannabes will have that one big costume piece on over their street clothes, where the diehards will be so into it they leave behind their outside world and are in full costume /garb complete with accents and affected body language - they'll be all doe-eyed when they talk about whatever totally most awesome life-changing thing EVAR! they've discovered and then get all misty-eyed and morose when the event is over.
One of my favorite things in life is spotting examples of advertising irony. In one booth on the "food row" there was a small table with a lone black man (somehow this mattered, as the booth was something like Black Vegetarians of Georgia?) with a sign that said "Did your food have a face?" with a picture of a pig's head on it. Well, I have sympathy for the poor piggies but I hate guilt-based advocacy so I just rolled my eyes and kept going - to the booth directly across from him: Grass-Fed Organic Beef! LOL! The folks there were cooking and serving up samples of their tasty formerly-faced foods. The vegetarian guy only had a few brochures and recipe cards to hand out.
Hint: next time you are on "food row"...bring some food! Some good soul food veggies and cornpone might have stood a chance against the meaty goodness across the aisle. And for some reason as we exited the event, Nature's Own was handing out entire loaves of bread. Yay, swag!
All in all a good day, I was fairly energized morale-wise even if my legs wuz sore. They're better now ;)